[email protected]: How one company is re-imagining mobile search – with co-founder Ami Ben David

Is the biggest misconception that search is a mature industry that has already been won by the big guys at Google and Bing? Have developers and innovators handed over the keys to these companies before even trying anything new? I suppose if you think of the way we currently use the Internet and mobile to search we typically default to what we are comfortable with – which may not necessarily be the right choice.

How do you rethink search for mobile. From the ground up says Ami Ben David, co-founder of [email protected] (“Do at”), and that’s what they’ve done.

Mobile brings a new paradigm to search – one that hopefully puts an end to the “search results as an endless list of links” experiment and moves it to the “most relevant information in front of you based on the context of your search” era. Context could be anything from location to time of day and results should flow from that right into the answer. Speed to actionable results is the killer app in mobile search.

Ami’s company has rethought this process and believes [email protected] to be the start of that answer. I asked Ami to come on to UNTETHER.tv from London after their successful TechCrunch Disrupt launch to talk about what is wrong with search from a mobile context, how and why they built their product, why mobile search needs to be rethought from the ground up and even get into the impact of launching at Disrupt.

Listen to the audio version now: [audio:http://blip.tv/file/get/Untether-DOAT566.mp3]

About Ami Ben-David

Ami’s career began at Aladdin Knowledge Systems, a software security company (NASDAQ:ALDN and later acquired by Vector Capital), and continued at AladdinSoft, a start-up subsidiary of Aladdin, developing home banking and CRM solutions for some of Israel’s largest organizations. While at AladdinSoft Ami led the CRM group, which developed and sold high-end telemarketing platforms.

After selling AladdinSoft, Ami worked as a senior consultant, primarily in London, UK followed by a period at MagmaVC (previously Magnum Ventures) where as VP of Investments he dealt primarily with mobile software-related start-ups.
Returning to his entrepreneurial roots, Ami then co-founded Ki-Bi Mobile Technologies, a mobile content distribution company, where he was responsible for product, marketing and sales. The company went public on the AIM in 2005.

Ami then was tapped by Oberon Media to launch the company’s European and Asian operations. Moving to London, Ami established and oversaw this expansion, taking responsibility for online, mobile and social platforms. While at Oberon, Ami drove hundreds of deals with media companies, portals and carriers leading to the distribution of online games that garnered tens of millions of monthly users across the EU and Asia. Under his leadership, Oberon garnered a position within the top 3 distributors and publishers of mobile and online games in most territories.

In 2010 Ami and Rami Kasterstein began talking about potential investment ideas, and in the process conceived the idea for DoAT. They brought in a third co-founder, Joey Simhon, and began development. At DoAT, Ami is responsible for product, user experience, strategic relationships and marketing.

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About the author

Rob Woodbridge

I'm Rob, the founder of UNTETHER.tv and I've spent 14 years immersed in the mobile and pervasive computing world. During this great time I've helped some of the most innovative companies grow their business through mobile. If you are in need of a mobile business advisor or coach, connect with me here to get things rolling.